One thing Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Wants To See More Of In Preseason Week 2

After the conclusion of preseason Week 1, Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid wasn’t too thrilled with his starters on offense, defense, and special teams.

“We need to pick up the tempo on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Not good enough.”

Throughout the final practice week at training camp that was the general consensus. Chiefs LB Nick Bolton said he took the performance of the first-team defense personally. Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub said he needed to see better effort from his guys.

When Patrick Mahomes took the lectern at the conclusion of training camp, he said there is one thing that he’s looking to see from the entire team as the head to Arizona to face the Cardinals in preseason Week 2.

“Just better energy, better urgency just from the get-go,” Mahomes said. “I thought the young guys did a great job in the second half of kind of picking it up. But I think just from the get-go, offense and defense, just having that urgency to go out there and compete.”

A lack of urgency from those first-team units helped put the team in a 17-point hole against New Orleans. They did eventually come back and make the game competitive, but they would have been in a much better position to win the game had those first-team units played with urgency and executed.

Training camp and the preseason is all about building a sturdy foundation to be relied upon during the season. In Mahomes’ eyes, you can’t build a culture of winning without seeing the results in the preseason.

“It’s a preseason game and obviously the results don’t necessarily matter but they do if you want to build a culture of winning,” Mahomes explained.

“We have a lot of young guys and even though they won a Super Bowl, they know how to respond and get even better the second year. So, I think just having better urgency from the get-go throughout the entire game, not as much the result, you obviously want to win but you want to have that mentality throughout the entire game.”

Last week might have been a bit of a post-Super Bowl slump for those starting units, but the MVP quarterback has high expectations for what their efforts should look like in Arizona against the Cardinals. They’re not just setting an example for the young guys, but they’re setting goals for the 2023 NFL season. That alone should be enough to motivate better performance.